Investment In Clean Energy Drops 53% To Start The Year

Overall global investment in clean energy tumbled in the first quarter of 2009 to $13.3 billion accoding to New Energy Finance. That’s a 53% dive from the year prior, and 44% drop from the previous quarter.

Yesterday we reported about the plummet in venture financing for clean tech, which dropped by 41% to $1 billion for the first quarter, according to the National Venture Capital Association. New Energy Finance says there was $1.8 billion, but it is also a massive drop.

New Energy says project financing for solar, wind and biofuel projects is down around the world, as is public market investment. From the email release: “Stock market investors contributed less than $100m to pure-play clean energy companies in Q1 2009, although a number of other firms with a mixture of activities, some in clean energy and some not, did succeed in raising equity finance. Even in 2008’s bear market, no quarter was as bleak as this for public market investment – Q4 2008 saw $1.1bn raised for instance, and Q1 2008 saw $2.1bn raised.”